Humanists have long been accused of being speciesist, or biased toward human beings at the expense of other species. Many humanists readily admit to being speciesist. Others deny it, and still others clearly are not speciesist. They are vegans or vegetarians and consistently speak, write and work for animal rights. Animal rights are not to be confused with animal welfare. Animal welfare concerns looking out for pets and farm animals, finding homes for pets, seeing to it that they receive veterinarian care, seeing to it that they are spayed and neutered, etc. Animal rights activists, however, insist that other animals have certain rights, such as the right to roam freely, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the right to be free from medical or scientific experimentation, etc.

Extremism of all kinds is bad. However, it is a mistake to contend that all forms of religious extremism are equally bad. On the contrary, I argue that of all the forms of religious extremism in the world today, Muslim fanaticism is the worst. Indeed, it is difficult to know where to start in demonstrating this case. So why not begin with sexism?

Non-theists are coming out of the woodwork, and this is always a most welcome development, especially among people of African descent. Seon M. Lewis of Grenada has done so with his book From Mythology to Reality. This well-researched book expertly demolishes the ridiculous notion among Rastafarians that Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is God. Moreover, Lewis offers many excellent critiques of theism, the Bible, Rastafarianism, Afrocentric thought and religion in general.

Green makes some fascinating analogies in her book. For example, she compares the oppression of Black people by White Christians to the oppression of the Dalits or “untouchables” under the Hindu castes system in India. The author points out that the major difference has been that Hindus have clearly acknowledged that their religion promotes caste discrimination. The Dalits are deemed morally inferior due to alleged sins in previous lives. Christians, on the other hand, have maintained that _true_ Christianity is supposed to be all about equality for all people. In other words, Christian bigots are hypocrites of the lowest sort.

The United Nations declared March 20th the first International Day of Happiness. Action for Happiness even has a website. The UN believes that celebrating a day of happiness is important in getting nations to better understand why the pursuit of happiness is crucial in reaching their public policy goals. People all over the world have embraced the celebration of happiness in numerous ways. The International Day of Happiness was originally suggested by Bhutan, a country that uses the Gross National Happiness Index to evaluate their progress, rather than a gross domestic product (GDP) mode.

A study published three years ago in the February 2010 issue of _Personality and Social Psychology Review_, found that many members of religious congregations are prejudiced against people of other races. Of course, this is nothing new. There have been major studies in the field of racism and religion for several years.

When I started out as the first full-time African American secular humanist activist traveling the world to promote humanism, skepticism, freethought and non-theism in 1989, the task appeared to be quite daunting. Since then, I have played a role in increasing the numbers of African Americans coming out of the closet and announcing their non-theism. Moreover, by the time I left African Americans for Humanism (AAH), the organization I founded, I had helped to establish and/or strengthen over 70 humanist groups in about 30 African nations. Furthermore, I had made contacts with Black humanists in the Netherlands, England, Brazil and Canada.

People that read my online column on a regular basis know that I sometimes demonstrate how tradition and culture often provide barriers to genuine human progress. A case in point is a DVD I recently viewed. In “Homosexuality: Loving in all the Wrong Places” (2008) by Afrocentric Pastor Ray Hagins, the minister draws upon theism, African traditions and culture to condemn homosexuality.

During Black History Month, many people like to focus on slavery. I, on the other hand, prefer to focus on what we Black people have done, as opposed to what has been done to us. Be that as it may, slavery is a crucial part of history, and no aspect of history should be ignored or downplayed.

In every movement there are moderates and radicals, “responsible” leaders and militants, etc. During the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King was considered to be a responsible leader. However, Malcolm X and other Black militants considered King and his passive resistance strategy to be soft, weak, cowardly, etc. In his “Message to the Grass Roots,” Malcolm explicitly condemned King and his “cohorts” as “religious Uncle Toms.” The more militant leaders believed that the mainstream leaders were achieving some superficial gains, but that they were not making any genuine progress.

My primary reason for traveling to Atlanta was to read a paper at the 2012 Eastern Division Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA). I was invited by my colleague John Shook, head of the Society of Humanist Philosophers. I was joined on my panel by Melvin L. Rogers, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Emory University, and Brad Elliot Stone, Associate Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University. Rogers, a John Dewey scholar, read a paper titled “Toward a Democratic Ethos: Engaging Du Bois’ Souls of Black Folk.” Stone, Chairman of the African American Studies Department, and the Director of the University Honors Program, read a paper titled “Prophetic Pragmatism and Black Secular Humanism.”My primary reason for traveling to Atlanta was to read a paper at the 2012 Eastern Division Annual Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA). I was invited by my colleague John Shook, head of the Society of Humanist Philosophers. I was joined on my panel by Melvin L. Rogers, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Emory University, and Brad Elliot Stone, Associate Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University. Rogers, a John Dewey scholar, read a paper titled “Toward a Democratic Ethos: Engaging Du Bois’ Souls of Black Folk.” Stone, Chairman of the African American Studies Department, and the Director of the University Honors Program, read a paper titled “Prophetic Pragmatism and Black Secular Humanism.”

In late December I traveled to Atlanta to speak at the 2012 Eastern Division Annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA). While there, I met with members of the Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta, and with author and documentary filmmaker Jeremiah Camara.

The American Family Association (AFA) has issued a warning that, by 2060, Christians could be oppressed in much the same way that African Americans were before the coming of the civil rights movement. It further warned that the nuclear family could go the way of the dinosaur, and that the U.S. could have a Muslim president.

Authorities in India have charged five men with kidnapping, gang-raping and murdering a woman in Delhi on December 16th. (The woman died later.) Thousands of women in the nation have marched to protest against the rape in particular, and against sexism in general. Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister of Delhi, joined the protesters and demanded strong laws against rape. Shahsi Tharoor, Junior Education Minister of India, advocates naming a new anti-rape law after the victim. Some politicians are demanding the death penalty and chemical castration for rapists.

For many atheists, atheism means much more than simply “without a belief in God or gods.” For many freethinkers, freethought means much more than thinking about religion unencumbered by the confines of religious dogma.

In the 1970s, singer/guitarist George Benson performed the song “The Greatest Love of All” for the soundtrack of the movie The Greatest, about the boxing icon Muhammad Ali. (Later, the late Whitney Houston remade the tune.) According to the song, Ali never found anyone to fulfill his needs for a hero, so he learned to depend upon himself. “I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone’s shadows,” Benson sings. “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all,” Benson relates.

Many humanists are of the opinion that humanism is in every possible way superior to religion. Moreover, many humanists believe that humanists are necessarily better than religionists. This is not surprising. Despite the fact that humanists stress the importance and power of critical thinking, there is a tendency of people in general to believe that their worldviews are superior to the worldviews of others.

I first heard of Jeremiah Camara when he and I were invited to speak at the meeting of the Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS) which was held in April of 2012. Little did I realize that he was the superb creator of Slave Sermons [http://www.slavesermons.com](), a funny and thought-provoking look at how the Bible condones slavery, and how people of African descent have bought into their own biblically-sanctioned oppression.

It is generally assumed that boys and girls must be inculcated with conceptions of masculinity and femininity, respectively. “Real” men are usually expected to like sports, to not walk away from fights, to lead women, to wear certain kinds of clothes and to shun other kinds, to want sex often, to get married and to father and raise their children, etc.

Most Republicans get testy when they are accused of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. However, one cannot help but be struck by how often Republicans and their supporters make insensitive, if not blatantly bigoted comments. Indeed, in recent weeks there have been many.